The Innovation of Containerization in Maritime Shipping

Introduction

Transportation of goods from one location to another is one of the most critical areas of concern that enhances advancement in business entities. This is because goods must be moved from the manufacturing point or distribution point to reach the end users at the market place. Once the goods are dispatched to various market destinations, it becomes quite easy to meet the rising needs of consumers. This is one of the most important considerations for profit making organizations that are established for purpose of making revenue. There are various ways through which goods are transported from one region to another. Commonly used modes of transportation include roads, sea, air, and railway. All these modes of transporting goods are essential in enhancing international trade whereby goods are moved from one country to another with ease.

The essence of enhancing international trade is to promote economic growth and help less developed countries reach the status of developed nations. Sea is an effective means through which goods are transported from one region to another. This falls under maritime shipping whereby goods are moved through water to reach a particular market destination. The commonly used form of transporting goods in maritime shipping is containerization. The main objective of this research paper is to discuss innovation of containerization in maritime shipping. Various attributes such as understanding the meaning of containerization, its innovation and factors that lead to containerization are discussed to comprehensively address the topic.

Containerization

The term containerization comes from the word container, which refers to the equipment developed to carry or store goods. In this view, containerization refers to the technique, method, or process through which goods are transported by bulk transporters (Konings, 2004). In other words, containerization involves transportation of cargo in containers whereby the containers can be interchanged between ships, trucks, and trains. This means that containerization involves establishment of intermodal transportation system, which involves the combination of roads, airways, railways and waterways. The aspect of containerization is mainly used in maritime shipping because it is a convenient and cost effective way of enhancing the movement of goods from one location to another.

One apparent reason that has led to massive development of containerization in maritime shipping is the aspect of bulk cargo. In this case, bulk cargo refers to both dry and liquid freight that is not packaged. Examples of goods that fall in this category include minerals and grains that are transported over long distances. Bulk cargo that is transported through maritime shipping has single origin and is provided to a particular client. Break-bulk cargo is another category of maritime freight, which refers to general cargo packaged in bags, drums, and boxes (Levinson, 2006). This category of maritime freight has numerous destinations, origins, and customers. The innovation of containerization in maritime shipping is based on break-bulk cargo. This is because the concept of containerization is that goods are packaged in containers, which are sealed and stacked in a ship or vessels that use sea as the main transport route. In this way it becomes quite easy to transport goods from a long distance without breakages.

Another practical example to understand the concept of containerization is transportation of finished goods such as textile. The finished textiles are loaded in a container that is transported by a long haul track to water front dock. The container undergoes the various verification processes and it is loaded to a steamer for transportation through waterway. Once the container reaches its destination, it is unloaded and taken to the customer through road or railway. It is important to note that goods are not shifted from one container to another throughout the process of containerization (Stopford, 2009). This makes it easy for the transportation of the container from one transportation mode to another.

Types of Containers Used in Maritime Freight

There are different types of containers used in transportation of goods such as general cargo container, bulk containers, flat containers, thermal container, gas, and liquid containers. The general cargo container is commonly used in maritime shipping because it is possible to pack all type of cargo that does not require specific temperature control. Bulk containers as the name suggests are large size containers that have openings at the top of the container (Brooks, 2000). Flat containers are also used in transportation of cargo. The flat containers have strong base and have no sidewalls, which helps in transportation of heavy and odd size cargo.

Other types of containers are thermal containers that are designed to transport cargo that requires refrigeration (Notteboom, 2012). Thermal containers are usually covered with special material with low heat transfer to ensure that goods are not damaged. Gas containers have fixture fittings essential for filling or emptying liquefied gas. These types of containers are usually made of thick walls and stainless steel to ensure safe transportation of gas. The other type of containers is liquid containers with manholes that help in the loading and unloading of liquid cargo. These particular types of containers are essential in transportation of cargo from one destination to another. This makes it easy to transport any form of cargo through sea, land, air, and rail without difficulties.